Better Than I Used to Be
by WeirdyMcWeirderton
Summary: Avery finds about Eliot's past and now Eliot has to race against time to save her, hoping that the relationship they've worked so hard to establish isn't destroyed. Continuation of my Avery series.
1. Chapter 1

**AN: Okay, so here's the next story in my Avery series. It happens after Cowboys and Angels. Hope everyone likes this!**

 **DISCLAIMER:** I own nothing of Leverage. I only own Avery.

Avery walks up to the door of her house. She was returning from school and, due to it being the middle of Winter, was bundled up in a coat, hat, gloves, scarf, and boots. She breathes out a breath of air and scowls at seeing her breath in front of her. Before she unlocks the door, Avery notices a large, yellow, office envelope resting against it.

Avery furrows her eyebrows and looks around. She doesn't see anyone so she cautiously picks the envelope up. She sees that it's full and bulging at the sides. Avery unwinds the string and carefully opens it up. There wasn't a postage stamp or addresses on it. So it wasn't dropped off by the mail. Avery peers inside and sees it's filled with paper and what looks to be pictures.

Furrowing her brow more, Avery pulls out the envelope's contents. She looks at the pictures and her blood runs cold. They were pictures of bodies that were shot, blood pools surrounding them. And the bodies were men, women, and children. She didn't understand why this would be left on their doorstep. Avery puts the pictures at the bottom of the pile and scans through the stack of papers.

Avery's eyes widen as she skims through the paperwork. It included names of victims and detailed summaries of how they died. Avery continues to flip through the papers until the last one. Her breath catches in her throat. On the last paper is a picture of her dad and information on him. Her eyes land on a yellow sticky not and her breath quickens.

"We know this was you Spencer."

Before she realizes was she's doing, the folder and papers drop to the floor and scatter and Avery takes off running into the woods behind her house. She couldn't think about the accusation being true. Her father couldn't have done all those things. Although, he did say that he didn't always used to be who he is now. But he couldn't have done those things. He couldn't have.

Avery feels the wind blow past her and the branches scraping against her coat. The snow crunching under her feet as she runs through the woods meets her ears. She didn't care where she was going, she just needed to get away.

LEVERAGE

Eliot walks up to the front door of his house. He had just gotten back from a job with the crew and was looking forward to sitting in front of the television and relaxing. As he gets to the top of the stairs, he notices a pile of papers, pictures, and a folder strewn out over the porch. Eliot furrows his eyebrows and bends down to pick them up. He notices the pictures and his eyes widen and his face loses color. He knew those pictures; they had been etched into his mind for years. His eyes are glued to the pictures when his hand grabs the folder and papers on top of it. Eliot puts the pictures on the pile but freezes mid-motion. He feels his heart stop when he sees the sticky note and he haphazardly shoves everything in the folder and closes it.

He had to hide this before Avery saw it. He needed to call Nate. Eliot stands up and stops. His eyes fall on a black backpack lying on the porch. Eliot hurriedly unlocks the door and searches the house, calling out for Avery. When he can't find her and she doesn't answer, Eliot sets the folder on the counter. He goes back out to the porch while pulling out his phone. He dials Nate's number and grabs Avery's backpack.

"Nate, I've got a problem," Eliot says into the phone when Nate answers the call. Eliot explains what he found as he sets the bag on the floor in the entryway. He goes back outside and begins looking around. He picks up on the footprints leading away from the porch and around to the back of the house.

"Avery took off," Eliot finishes explaining as he follows her footprints to the edge of the woods behind their house.

"All right, just hang tight. We're on our way," Nate says before hanging up the phone. Eliot puts his phone back in his pocket and looks into the trees.

"Dammit Avery."

LEVERAGE

Avery runs past a tree and grabs it's trunk, yanking herself to a stop. She angrily wipes at the tears falling from her eyes. She closes her eyes and turns around and presses her back to the tree trunk. Avery slides down until she's sitting on the ground and pulls her knees to her chest.

LEVERAGE

Eliot determinedly walks to the front of the house where Nate and the team just arrived. They climb out of their cars and walk over to meet Eliot. It didn't take them long to get there. Nate had called Hardison and Sophie. Hardison had called Parker and picked her up while Nate had picked up Sophie. As soon as they heard Avery was missing, the team had dropped everything.

"Any idea where she went?" Nate asks as they approach Eliot.

"Her footprints lead to the woods," Eliot replies with a nod of his head towards the back of the house.

"Okay, we go in teams. Sophie, you stay here in case she shows up," Nate says and begins giving orders. "Hardison and Parker, you two go towards the left. Eliot and I'll go to the right."

The team nods their heads and hurriedly disperse in their directions. Sophie walks into the house, silently glad she doesn't have to go traipsing around the woods in the dead of Winter. And to make it worse it was only in the single digits. Sophie takes off her Winter apparel and sets it down on one of the chairs at the table. She looks around the room and she notices the folder Nate had told her about lying on the counter.

Nate hadn't gone into specifics; just explained that it consisted of what Eliot had done when he was with Moreau. Sophie stares at it for a while. She wouldn't lie to herself and say she wasn't curious, but did she really want to know? She walks over and picks the folder, staring at it intently. Sophie sighs and opens a nearby drawer and shoves the folder inside. She shuts the door and goes to the table where she takes a seat. No, Sophie didn't want to know. She knew Eliot wasn't a saint and that he did horrible things when he was with Moreau. But that was in the past and Eliot had changed. He was no longer that man and was never going to be that man again. Sophie would rather remember that than let a folder taint her perception of a good man she had come to trust and think of as family.

LEVERAGE

"What do you think was in the folder?" Parker asks as she and Hardison walks through the woods in search of Avery. She had a map in her hand and Hardison had his GPS out as well. It was freezing outside and they didn't want to get lost.

"Don't ask questions with answer you don't want to know Parker," Hardison replies as he looks down at his GPS. He sighs and looks around them. They had been searching for a while with no sign of Avery anywhere. Hopefully, Nate and Eliot were doing better with their search.

LEVERAGE

"Have you thought about what you're going to do when we find her?" Nate asks Eliot as they walk through the woods.

"What the hell am I supposed to say? 'Sorry sweetheart. It was part of my job then.' Come on Nate. That's lame and you know it. There's nothing I can say that will make this better," Eliot growls out with a scowl. He hasn't forgiven himself for what he did while he was with Moreau, how can he expect anyone else to.

"I'm not saying it will, but you will have to talk to her. You can't just leave this," Nate replies as he looks over at Eliot. Eliot's body is tense and his forehead is creased with worry. This was a bomb ticking down the minutes to when it explodes. They'd have to be careful with how they handle the situation.

Eliot sighs and stops as he looks around them. He forces a swallow and tries not to think about the conversation that will have to happen. He kind of hoped they didn't find Avery but, instead, that Hardison and Parker do. Or, she finds her way back to the house. If Avery could; it was easy to get lost in these woods, especially if you didn't know them or weren't paying attention to where you were going. Like if you were running blind because you found out your father used to be a killer.

"Thanks for not telling the others what was in the folder," Eliot says with a strained voice.

"Yeah, well I'm a little more understanding than they are," Nate replies and meets Eliot's gaze. Eliot nods his head in understanding. He wasn't that man anymore. Hadn't been for a long while, but he didn't want his past mistakes to ruin the family he had.

LEVERAGE

Avery shivers again and decides it was time to head back to the house. Or, at least, where it was inside. She stands up and begins back the way she came. At least where she thought she came. She didn't remember any of this. Avery turns in a circle. She didn't remember any of this at all. Crap, Avery thinks to herself with a grimace on her face.

LEVERAGE

Sophie was bored; that was to put it mildly. She looked around the room, lost as to what to do. She could watch TV but she felt like that would mean she didn't care. She could cook dinner but she didn't know how. So, instead, Sophie just paced the room and worried.

LEVERAGE

Alec Hardison and Parker traipse through the snow. Even with all their snow clothes on they found themselves shivering. Hardison blows out a breath of air and watches as the white puff floats away from him. He looks down at his GPS and sees it's only two degrees out, and it was only going to get colder the later it gets.

Parker's body shudders and she finds herself moving closer to Hardison. If they were cold who knew how cold Avery was. They didn't even know what kind of snow clothes she had on. Parker sighs, wishing their phones would work, but with so many trees their signal was spotty. Parker looks ahead at Hardison. She hadn't even realized she had slowed down. She hurries and catches up to him and the two of them continue their search.

LEVERAGE

Avery shudders and wraps her arms around her body. She had been trying to make her way back home but had only served in getting herself more lost. She shivers again and her teeth chatter. It was getting colder by the minute. The good thing was that she had her winter coat, gloves, and hat on. As another shiver violently wracks her body, Avery makes a decision. The team would be looking for her by now so her best bet would be to stay put and try to stay warm.

Avery looks around and sees a Pine tree nearby with low hung branches. That would provide cover against the wind. Avery crawls underneath the tree and gets comfortable. She pulls piles of snow over and covers herself with them, packing it in tight. The snow would act as an insulation and keep her warm. Avery leans up against the tree and pulls her hat down further before rubbing her gloved hands together and resting them on her cold cheeks.

LEVERAGE

Eliot and Nate stomp through the woods in silence. They had been out searching for hours and the temperature had dropped further, crossing into negative numbers. The sky was darkening and they'd have to use their flashlights soon. Eliot sighs and looks down at the snow.

"Nate," Eliot says as he stops and crouches down. Nate looks over and sees Eliot studying the ground.

"What is it?" Nate asks, walking over to Eliot and peering down in the snow.

"Footprints," Eliot says before standing up and following the trail.

"Are they Avery's?" Nate asks. He hurriedly follows after Eliot.

"Definitely," Eliot replies. He'd know those boot prints anywhere. He keeps an eye on the footprints as he walks, inwardly sighing with relief at finally having a lead. Eliot keeps walking until he gets to a spot where the tracks disappear. The wind blows and he notices the snow blowing across the trail, covering up where the footprints would've been.

Eliot looks around having seen the footprints taking a turn towards a clump of Pine trees. He walks in this direction and his eyes scan the surrounding area. They stop on a pile of snow underneath one of the trees. _How did that happen?_ Eliot thinks to his self. He squats down and peers under the tree.

"Avery," Eliot says in surprise as his eyes widen. He shoves himself under the tree and over to where his daughter is asleep. He rests a hand on her cheek and feels its ice cold. He feels for a pulse and finds one, letting out a sigh of relief. Eliot's shifts his gaze up to Avery's face.

"Avery, come on sweetheart," Eliot says loudly as he gently taps her cheek. "Avery, wake up."

Avery's brow furrows and her face scrunches up. A shiver runs through her but the only part of her body that was cold was her face. She hears someone call her name again and she shifts. Avery blinks her eyes open and she sees her dad's face in front of hers. The contents of the folder come back to her and her eyes widen. She wasn't afraid of her dad per se. She just couldn't understand why he would do those things. Anger; that's what she felt. And she wasn't really sure how to deal with it.

"Hey, you with me?" Eliot asks as Avery wakes up. Avery just stares at him but her eyes are clear. She hears movement behind her dad and her gaze shifts to over Eliot's shoulder. Nate squats down and is peering at her from under the branches. "Let's get you out of her. Your face is freezing."

Avery looks back at Eliot but doesn't make any move to un-bury herself. She didn't want to go with him. Not yet; not until she made some sense of everything.

Eliot sees she's not willing to follow his lead so he begins shoveling the snow off her with his hands. He didn't really know what to expect when he found her but this cold indifference was definitely not it. He just wished she would yell at him, hit him, anything but this. Eliot uncovers Avery and gently pulls her out from under the tree.

"Come on, let's get you inside where it's warm," Eliot says. His heart drop when Avery pulls away from him and begins walking in a direction. Thankfully it was the right one. He feels a hand on his shoulder and he looks over at Nate.

Nate gives him a squeeze before following after Avery. Eliot sighs and looks at his daughter's retreating back. This was crap; this whole thing was crap. Avery was the last person he wanted to know about what he did when he was with Moreau. And now, she knew everything. He didn't know how he was going to fix this. He didn't know how the two of them could ever be the same.

LEVERAGE

Avery was lying on the couch in her living room, curled up in a blanket. She had been there since they'd gotten home hours ago. She refused to even acknowledge her dad and he'd finally called it a night and went back to his room. Avery had been thinking long and hard about what she found out that afternoon and had come to a conclusion. She needed to talk to her dad.

Avery turns her head towards the back of the couch. On the other side was the kitchen and she had heard her dad walk into the room. She listens as he opens the fridge and shuts it. She didn't think he even knew she was still there on the couch.

"Did you really do those things?" Avery asks, not moving at all. She hears her dad jump and curse under his breath. Normally, she would chuckle at scaring her father; it wasn't every day Eliot Spencer got startled. However, other feeling had taken over and she was satisfied she had startled her dad.

Eliot looks into the living room but doesn't see Avery. He assumes she's lying on the couch where he can't see her. He scolds himself for not realizing she was still out here and sets his beer on the counter. Eliot takes a deep breath and walks in to the living room. Eliot rounds the side of the couch and looks down at his daughter. Avery is looking up at him, watching him closely.

"What?" Eliot asks her, his mind already forgetting her question. He was just happy she was talking to him; even if it was at midnight.

"Did you really do those things?" Avery asks again as she holds Eliot's gaze.

"Yeah," Eliot replies reluctantly. He knew the only way to even remotely make them even somewhat okay was to be completely honest with her.

"Why?" Avery asks bluntly with her eyes glued to him. Eliot sighs and looks away towards the window. He waits a few moments before answering.

"It's hard to explain," Eliot says as he looks back at Avery. Her gaze is unwavering and Eliot sighs. He walks over to sit on the other end of the couch.

Avery sits up and pulls her knees to her chest. She watches Eliot as he tries to find the words to explain. It takes him a few moments but he finally starts to explain.

"I just got back from serving and I was messed up. Moreau had offered me a job with my _talent_. I took it and I did whatever he told me to do. It was normal. At least compared to what I just returned from. After a while I started seeing what I was doing. I couldn't live with myself anymore so I left. I've been trying to make it right ever since. I haven't been that man since I left," Eliot says as he stares at a spot in front of him. Avery watches him for a moment. Her dad was right; he wasn't that man anymore. She's dealt with men like that and that wasn't her father. Even on a job her dad only ever injured his opponents. Avery sighs. She didn't know what was more insane. The fact they had to have this conversation or the fact she was willing to forgive her dad.

"I'm going to bed," Avery says before pushing off the couch and walking back to her room. Eliot watches her leave not sure if they were okay. Although, she didn't seem as cold as before. Eliot sighs and decides to follow Avery's lead and heads to bed.

 **AN: Only one more chapter after this! Please send some feedback. Thanks for reading!**


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: Here's the last chapter! Hope everyone enjoys it!**

Three weeks. It had been three weeks since the folder had been left on Eliot's doorstep. The team hadn't done much since then. Nate had given them some time off so Eliot and Avery could work through some things. And they had. Avery was still upset and, even more, disappointed about what her dad used to do. However, she was slowly beginning to understand why her father did what he did. She by no means agreed with it or believed it was right, but she understood.

Avery sighs and looks around the room filled with desks and busy officers. They had come to the police station for a field trip. They were Juniors in high school and the teachers wanted to give them a basis of some common jobs. One of them was Law Enforcement, so here they were.

Truth was, Avery had no clue what kind of career she wanted. She never really thought about it; she always just assumed she'd get a job and help take care of her mom. Now, she just wanted to be part of the Leverage team. At least they were able to get the bad guys the cops lawfully couldn't. Avery sighs and looks up at the cop giving the tour and rolls her eyes at his obnoxious joke. He was trying way too hard.

"Spencer!" Avery's head shoots up with her eyes widening slightly. She looks around and covers the smirk threatening to appear at seeing Detective Bannano standing in the doorway of his office. Bannano nods his head towards the inside of his office and walks inside.

Avery furrows her eyebrows and looks over at her teacher. She's giving Avery a curious look and Avery just grins and shrugs her shoulders as she lifts her hands up. Avery walks away from the group and into Bannano's office and shuts the door behind her. Bannano waves a hand at a couple of chairs in front of his desk and Avery takes a seat in one of them. He hands her a folder and Avery takes it with a raised eyebrow.

"What's this?" Avery asks just before she opens it and browses through it.

"A woman had come into my office wanting to press charges on this guy. After looking into it I found I couldn't do anything. He didn't do anything illegal, just massively immoral," Bannano explains with a sigh and a shake of his head. "I was hoping Ford and the team would be able to help her."

"I'm sure they will," Avery replies with a nod of the head. She closes the folder and slide it into her bag before standing up. Bannano sighs in relief and stands up himself. He follows Avery to the door and opens it for her.

"See ya around detective," Avery says with a smirk before walking out and joining her class.

LEVERAGE

Eliot and Avery climb out of the truck and walk up to their house. They had just finished the job they got from Bannano. Surprisingly, it went smooth and relatively simple. As they walk to the stairs, Eliot notices large footprints in the snow; fresh footprints.

"Stay here," Eliot orders Avery before following the trail. Avery scowls as she watches her dad leave. She looks on the ground and notices the footprints as well. Her scowl deepens and she quickly and quietly follows after her dad.

Eliot creep down the side of the house and peers around the corner to the back porch. He furrows his eyebrows and sighs before standing up and walking around the corner. He walks up to the porch and stares at the curly, blond haired man lounging in one of the chairs. The man looks over and sees Eliot and sends him a smirk before sitting up.

"About time you showed up," Quinn says and his eyes dart next to Eliot when Avery walks over. "There's your better half."

"I told you to stay put," Eliot says with a sigh of frustration. Avery scowls at him and then looks up at Quinn.

"What's Quinn doing here?" Avery asks with furrowed eyebrows Eliot opens his mouth to say something but Quinn speaks before Eliot can say anything.

"Found some information I thought you'd want to know," Quinn say and stands up Avery and Eliot watch as Quinn walks down the stairs and over to meet them.

"What kind of information?" Eliot asks as his eyebrows pinch together.

"The kind that deals with a certain folder," Quinn replies with a smug look. Avery's eyes widen and she looks over at her dad. Eliot's jaw clenches and his look darkens but doesn't show any other emotion.

"Well…?" Eliot asks with impatience lacing his tone. Quinn chuckles and grins before relenting.

"John Masterson. Used to work for Moreau, and it seems he still does," Quinn explains. Eliot scowls. The name sounded familiar but he never met the guy. Eliot was the muscle and he didn't meet too many of the guys higher up.

"How do you know this?" Eliot asks and fixes Quinn with a look.

"Cause he offered me a job," Quinn says and the smile disintegrates a large amount.

"What kind of job?" Avery asks with dread filling her stomach.

"What kind of job?" Eliot asks at the same time. His senses are on high alert and his instincts kick in.

"To kill you," Quinn says as he looks at Eliot. Avery's eyes widen and Eliot's body tenses up for a fight before taking a step in front of Avery. Not that it would do much good; Quinn had no problem using guns like he did. "Turned it down though. Told him I already had a job I was hired for."

"What's that?" Avery asks as she steps to the side to see Quinn better. Eliot scowls and Quinn shrugs his shoulders.

"I'm sure one will turn up," he says with a smirk.

"Why?" Eliot asks with a furrowed brow.

"If he has the balls to go after you, he'll go after any one of us," Quinn says with a scowl on his face. "When the time comes and you guys go after him, I want in."

"Deal," Eliot agrees with a nod of his head. Quinn nods his head and walks past them.

"See ya kid," Quinn says to Avery with a smirk before walking to the front of the house.

"Now what?" Avery asks, turning to look at Eliot.

"We find Nate," Eliot says and he leads Avery back out to the truck. They didn't know what they were going to do but they knew they needed to take the fight to Masterson.

 **AN: Hope everyone enjoyed this! There will be a sequel up soon!**


End file.
